In a speech worthy of any racist, Trumpian demagogue, Keir Starmer yesterday declared a new war on vulnerable migrants arriving in Britain. Many have correctly pointed out the degree to which it echoes the notorious “Rivers of Blood” speech given by the late Tory MP Enoch Powell in 1968, where he argued that white people in a multicultural Britain “found themselves made strangers in their own country.” Starmer literally argued that migration meant Britain was now “an island of strangers”.
Draconian racist measures
In a foreword he wrote to a policy document that promises new draconian and racist language tests for migrants, and limits the number of work visas, he declared, “the damage this [migration] has done to our country is incalculable”. Essentially, he is blaming poor migrants, not the big business profiteers and successive Tory and Labour austerity governments, for low wages and woefully underfunded public services. This argument wilfully ignores the vital role that migrant workers play in maintaining services such as the care sector.
Over the last decade and a half, there has been a massive transfer of wealth to bankers and big business; today, Britain’s billionaires have £182 billion in wealth. The bosses have sought to exploit the vulnerability of migrant workers to drive down wages and conditions; we should not accept this – we need a united struggle for living wages, council homes, and high-quality jobs and public services for all. We also need to oppose all racist immigration laws and controls, and the stirring up of racist hatred by both the far right and the traditional parties of the capitalist establishment.
Right-wing government
Starmer’s government has cut billions for welfare while increasing money for warfare. It has axed winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners and maintained the Tories’ cruel two-child benefit gap. On top of this, it has maintained the steady flow of arms to the Israeli State’s genocide against the people of Gaza and supported the recent transphobic ruling by the UK Supreme Court. Yesterday’s speech was another example of Starmer’s rapid shift to the right.
It comes in the aftermath of the drubbing he received in the recent local elections, which saw significant gains made by the far-right Reform UK party. It also comes in the aftermath of Reform gaining a 10-point lead over Labour in opinion polls. Starmer is hoping he can steal the clothes of Farage and his ilk and cut across their momentum – a strategy that is both shameful and doomed to failure.
It will only embolden Farage and give further credence to his disgusting, racist talking points. A case in point was shown on the very day of Starmer’s speech when Farage in the House of Commons said, in customary disgraceful language, spoke of “Iranian terrorists” being amongst the “600 young men” being processed in Dover that day.
We need a major mobilisation against the far-right and racism. We urge everyone to join ROSA’s protest march for trans rights this Saturday in Belfast City Centre. Starmer and Farage are morbid symptoms of a rotten system. Capitalism in Britain and beyond is built on inequality and austerity for the majority, while it unleashes and ferments the most noxious racist and LGBTQphobic bile. We cannot accept its rule – we need a new multi-racial, multi-gendered working-class party that fights for a democratic socialist society based on equality for all and oppression and exploitation for none.
